this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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  • YouTube is testing server-side ad injection to counter ad blockers, integrating ads directly into videos to make them indistinguishable from the main content.
  • This new method complicates ad blocking, including tools like SponsorBlock, which now face challenges in accurately identifying and skipping sponsored segments.
  • The feature is currently in testing and not widely rolled out, with YouTube encouraging users to subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Now here's a thought - what if the real workaround Google are using here is targeting only non manifest V3 users?

That would reduce the cost of doing this, since chrome users are already forced to swallow ads and could just be served as normal.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Firefox also implements manifest v3, just without the user-hostile restrictions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Good to know.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Time to switch to odysee fully I guess

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I don't know why you'd go with a crypto scheme if what you actually need is video.

Peertube is federated just like lemmy, so it doesn't have to cook the planet to achieve decentralisation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Fair enough. I completely forgot about peertube. Been using newpipe predominantly and odysee was the first alternative that came to mind.

Thanks for reminding me about peer tube. A client recommendation would be great. I've used p2play.

Edit: I actually looked into the whole odysee debacle and it's disgusting,so I will try to use peertube (newpipe also supports it,but,again,completely forgot about it).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I've heard that some versions of the Blockchain are not based on computing power and therefore are not nearly as awful re: emissions. But I don't really know much about it so I decided to look into Odysee.

Instead I found out all about how the company that created the protocol was blasted out of existence by the SEC for selling unregistered securities & the website is full of Nazis because they don't do anything about fucking Nazis.

Never did reach a conclusion about the blockchain thing. Kinda stopped caring. Sounds like a clusterfuck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Proof of stake is what it's called, but then it's even more of a ponzi scheme because you have to buy in. Like they're literally recreating coconut island.

Also nobody seems to actually be doing it, possibly for exactly that reason. It's just a green-washing promise of an idea.

Federation and crypto are two completely opposite philosophies of decentralisation.

Crypto is based on zero-trust, which sounds cool and edgy if you're 15, but in practice it turns out that the people drawn to a zero trust system are untrustworthy. It's not surprising that it's full of Nazis.

Federation is designed around trust, which is the way our meatspace social networks actually work, and I think it's the only reasonable way forward.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

https://dearrow.ajay.app/

community driven skippable timestamps and remove click bait thumbnails.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Cool, but that doesn’t work when ads are inserted randomly

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I can imagine a plugin system that gets submissions of hashes of specific frames - or just entire frames - when users play them, then checks those frames to detect which parts of the video are unique vs common, then automatically requests new frames to narrow down the timestamps and carve out the additions.

Probably wouldn't take more than a handful of views across the entire network to get a pretty solid ad removal system. Even better it wouldn't even rely on user input, which itself is already pretty fast. I have never encountered even the newest video that wasn't already in the sponsorblock system.

Honestly this sounds like a fun project, I imagine it wouldn't take the heroes that develop things like sponsorblock very long to figure it out. Plus they have spite on their side.

Edit: actually, rather than rely on randomised frame checks to find the collisions, have the clients submit frames then send frames out and ask clients to see if those frames appear in their videos. Then you very quickly determine which frames are unique.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

you might be onto something.
now if only we could fund this project.. maybe through advertising

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

yeah, i realized it later. i don't see normal ads, forgot they're injected randomly. still a great plugin

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And I'm testing no longer using YouTube.

Cable was gone years ago, followed by all streaming. Soon all I'll have left are games and hobbies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

EA, Ubisoft, and Activision are all on my do not buy list. Their games aren't even worth pirating.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Can't inject shitty ads in my mountain of board games.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I dunno.. Hasbro kind of has a monopoly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

EA has been on the boycott list since mass effect 3

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

It seems that Youtube's IT department has decided to utilize the budget and show investors that they are not getting paid for nothing. After all, Youtube is only testing a new type of advertising, and there are already a dozen solutions to the problem in the comments.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In theory this could be beaten by using a link to a timestamp at 1 second in. If it starts at 0, it's an ad.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That would work for ads before the content, but not if they are spliced into the running video.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Use a timestamp link for now, if it gets a different time than requested, there's an ad.

I'm sure some algorithm could be written to beat it. Still crappy overall but figured they'd do this sooner or later.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This wouldn't be a problem IF content creators were paid a fair share. I wouldn't actually mind ads nearly as much knowing that the channels I enjoy watching were getting paid reasonably for every ad that I watched. Google has the technology to make it possible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Also if the ads were actually curated and we didn't have crypto scams running amok

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